Chapter 5The DilemmaIt had been several hours since his battle with the super-powered beings of this world. Much destruction occurred as a result of that crimson goliath attacking him and, when he was carried off after being "defeated" he saw that the street, nearly the entire neighborhood, had been decimated. He would be lying if he said he did not feel a tad bit of shame for causing such a mess. But it was necessary. In the grand scheme of things, it would look as insignificant as the ants on the sidewalk.
The armored giant sat in near-darkness. His large hands restrained by a metallic device. Apparently, it was strong enough to hold the red beast he fought earlier. At least, according to the three people in front of him. They were in a small room and he sat in a chair in front of a small table. The only source of light was a small lamp hanging from the ceiling.
Veslir's eyes remained on the two men in front of him. The star-spangled avenger and the armored avenger from before. They said nothing and silence filled the room. That is, until the captain decided to talk.
"We know you're not bad. You gave up willingly."
Veslir raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh? What makes you so sure?"
"You went toe-to-toe with the Red Hulk and nearly beat him. With that kind of strength, it's obvious you could have kept fighting if you wanted. But you didn't. Why?"
Oh, this man was good. He had managed to pay attention to such things even in the hat of battle. Veslir knew he was right. He had allowed himself to be taken in after seeing how powerful each member of the team was. The large beast, called the Red Hulk, had incredible physical strength. On top of that, the angrier he had gotten, the more heat he gave off. The proof of such heat was visible in the several blackened areas of Veslir's armor. The blonde woman in the red and blue outfit was called Captain Marvel. She also had surprising physical strength and, while it was not on the same level as the red beast's, it was enough to cause his armor damage and him physical pain. Veslir had also been a victim of her powerful energy blasts and, when he had attempted to counter with his own energy, she had simply absorbed it and redirected back at him. It was...unpleasant, to put it lightly. The two Avengers in front of him, Captain America and Iron Man, were both powerful in their own ways. The captain had no superhuman abilities whatsoever, at least, as far as Veslir could tell. His skill with his shield, however, may as well have been considered superhuman. Besides that, he seemed to have an incredible amount of natural charisma. His allies followed his orders flawlessly and seemed to fight with increased vigor once he actually joined the battle himself. The man in red and gold armor...reminded Veslir of someone from his world. He had a subordinate who was a master at engineering and robotics. He had created his own suit of armor that gave him superhuman abilities. Iron Man was the same, except his armor was considerably sleeker. More advanced. The armored general was curious as to whether he had built that armor himself or had gotten it from someone else.
Iron Man spoke next. "You mentioned something about stones. Now I'm pretty sure you don't mean some plain rocks, otherwise you would have been completely fine with the ones on the streets. What exactly are you looking for?"
He had to give these two credit. They caught on quickly and paid attention to small details. That would explain why they were the ones who seemed to be in command of these "Avengers". They reminded him of Silv and his bunch back home. A small group of extraordinary individuals who band together to keep the peace. That meant that they could most likely be trusted. Whether they would be competent allies or not remained to be seen. He was getting ahead of himself, though. First thing was to see if they would even believe him.
Veslir took a deep breath. "The stones I am looking for are called the Talisma. They're relics of incredible power that can accomplish feats beyond your comprehension. They can ignore all the laws of the universe to accomplish whatever their wielder desires."
Captain America narrowed his eyes. "So they're magic?"
"They may as well be. No one knows how they function. They simply do."
He looked at Iron Man, who loudly sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not liking the sound of this. Dealing with ancient artifacts of god-like power is always a massive pain..."
The armored general found this curious. Did these people regularly have to deal with situations such as this? Perhaps they would be even better allies than he originally anticipated. That would also explain why they seemed to believe him so easily. If this was a normal world he probably would have been deemed insane by now and thrown into whatever this world uses for prisons.
"But why attack Hawkeye?" Captain America's question knocked Veslir our of his thoughts. He looked at the avenger for a moment, as if contemplating an acceptable way to answer.
"He informed me that he was part of a team called the Avengers. He told me this team had saved the world, and the universe, a multitude of times. I believed it would be best if such a group were the first to know of this situation."
"Why not simply tell him about the situation? Clint's not an idiot. He probably would have believed you and alerted us."
Now that part...was a bit more difficult to answer. Why exactly had Veslir not done that? Oh right, it was because he had smashed someone's car and the archer had thought he was trying to attack innocent people. It was certainly not one of the general's best moments, but the loud blaring of that vehicle's horn was just so very irritating!
Veslir sighed, deciding it was simply best to tell the truth. "When I arrived here, I landed in a rather busy street. Someone beeped the horn of their vehicle at me for a while and the noise was just just so very irritating. I ended up smashing the front of their vehicle in an attempt to make them stop. I can only assume the archer thought I was trying to hurt innocents, so he engaged me in combat."
Captain America and Iron Man shared a glance, surprised by such an explanation.
"You know..." The armored avenger started. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to do the same thing before I had my armor. Some people are just downright annoying with those things."
Cap did not share his friend's sense of humor on the matter. He simply raised an eyebrow at him before turning his attention back to Veslir. "That behavior's...not really fitting of a general. At least not here."
"Do not take one unimpressive moment and attempt to paint me with just that alone." He replied, annoyance clear in his tone. "To do so would be rather insulting."
Cap raised a hand, signaling he meant no offense by his comment. Hoping to move onto another topic, he cleared his throat. "Veslir. How did the Talisma get here? Do you know?"
He shook his head. "No. I have no idea why they have appeared in your world. The last time I heard of them, before now, was over a year ago. A demon attempted to use them to destroy humanity but was stopped at the last second."
"By you?" Iron Man asked.
"No, not me. I did not even know the whole thing was going on until later. The situation occurred in a city that was not under my jurisdiction. An inhabitant of that city was the one who stopped the demon."
"Wait a second." Captain America said. He was confused now. "You said you were the general of an army. How is one city unable to be touched by you?"
Veslir looked at him as if he was having difficult understanding the question. After a full minute of silence he responded with a small chuckle. "Your world is vastly different from mine. Even more than I originally thought."
The two Avengers were silent, waiting for the otherworldly giant to continue.
"On my world, humanity is nearly extinct. The result of one man with insane ambitions and desires. His name was Lawrence, at least, before he threw away that name alongside his humanity and took the 'charming' name of Cloako. He developed an obsession with demonic power and sought a way to gain them. In his mad pursuit for such power he discovered a way to open the very gates to Hell itself. He succeeded in opening them and the resulting flood of demons wiped out sixty percent of the human race and caused catastrophic damage. It was only due to the efforts of a powerful warrior and his allies that Cloako was defeated and the gates were closed."
"Damn." Iron Man mumbled. He said nothing else afterwards. Of course, what else was there to say? He was never good at responding to people about things like this. On top of that, he did not even really know Veslir. Any sort of attempt at making him feel better could insult him for all he knew.
Captain America's expression had turned serious and he narrowed his eyes at the armored general. "I'm sorry to hear that happened, Veslir. But what exactly does that have to do a city being out of your influence?" It was not like he did not care about the giant's plight. In fact, he felt genuine pity for him. But he still needed an answer to his original question.
"I am getting to that." Veslir responded. "The damage and loss of life was so extensive that society fragmented. Humans broke off into groups and headed to whichever cities were still functional. There was no longer a widespread form of government and each city became a type of city-state, governed by their own set of laws and their own type of government. Because of this, each city-state has its own military, its own ruler or rulers, its own holidays, its own education system, and the like."
The star-spangled avenger caught on. "It's like each city-state is its own country. A military group can't just got barging into another country no matter what the situation is. Such a thing could be taken as a sign of war."
The armored general nodded. "Exactly. The woman in charge of the city with the demon with the Talisma? She neglected to inform anyone outside the city of the situation. She had too much pride and it nearly cost us the remains of our tattered world. It is also because of that, and her biased report on the matter, that I have no idea how the Talisma could end up here."
Captain America stroked his chin in thought. "Hm...how did you get here anyways? If you didn't even really know much about the Talisma then how did you know they arrived in our world?"
"Huh." Veslir sighed. "This is actually an odd question to answer. I was actually visited by a woman in my quarters. She told me about the stones appearing in another world and that she chose me as the person to get them back. I did not hesitate and immediately accepted the mission. Such a task is too risky to refuse just because it could possibly be a trap. I would rather have accepted the mission and fallen into an enemy's grasp instead of refusing it and allowing an innocent world to die from the stones' misuse."
A small smile appeared on Cap's face. He was starting to like this man. His personality was actually reminding him of himself in a way. "I would have done the same thing."
"I do not know who that woman was. But the fact that she actually had the power to send me to a completely different world for this..." Veslir paused for a moment. "Any other questions? Or can we move onto the task of actually finding the stones and saving your world?"
A woman's voice came from outside the room. "I'm afraid you're not gonna be going anywhere, 'General'." The door to the room opened and a woman with short black hair, light skin, and blue eyes walked in. She was wearing a form-fitting blue bodysuit with white straps on the arms and legs, the strap on her right thigh holding a pistol. On her right arm was a white circular emblem of an eagle with the word S.H.I.E.L.D. printed in black in its center. The woman was fairly attractive, but simply looking at her gave Veslir the impression that she was not exactly a friendly person.
"Ah, Maria Hill." Iron Man said. His tone made it obvious he was not exactly excited to see her.
"Director Hill." Captain America started. "Were you listening in?"
"Of course." She replied bluntly. "The guy has the strength of the Hulk and he's on my helicarrier. I need to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't cause it to crash for the third time this month." Normally such a thing would be an exaggeration, but it sadly wasn't. The helicarrier, a large flying structure that was practically a floating aircraft carrier, was the group's current location. Veslir had been told it was owned by the organization S.H.I.E.L.D. which was a group that had a variety of duties. Most were connected to protecting humanity but they were also sometimes considered a military force. From what he had heard about it, he simply assumed it was a jack-of-all-trades organization. Most likely with different branches in charge of different duties. This woman in front of him, Maria Hill, was its current leader.
"With all due respect." Veslir started. "These relics are from my world. They are my responsibility. I was sent here, away from my home and people, to retrieve them and ensure that they do not cause the entire destruction of your world. I see little reason for you to keep me out of this battle."
"You trashed the living hell out of downtown Brooklyn." Another blunt statement.
"And for that I apologize. You are already aware of my reasoning for that, so there is little else I can say on the matter."
"Maria..." Cap's voice was gentle, yet stern at the same time. "While I don't agree with Veslir's method of gaining our attention, I can see he's serious about his dedication to this. On top of that, you saw the footage. You saw our fight with him. It would be foolish to leave such a strong asset on the sidelines."
Iron Man nodded. "Agreed. Leaving Veslir out of this would be like looking at the Thing and saying 'go home, we can handle the Hulk without you'."
Maria Hill looked at the two avengers. She then massaged the bridge of her nose as she realized how right they were. Iron Man smiled under his helmet when he saw this. "Fine." She mumbled. "He can go with you guys. But I will be keeping an eye on him, so I'll know if he does anything else crazy and you two don't tell me about it."
Veslir spoke up, doing his best to ignore the director's subtle insults. "You needn't worry about that, Ms. Hill. Focusing on the task at hand shall be no problem for me."
She raised an eyebrow at him, obviously not convinced, and said nothing. She then looked at the two avengers. "I have paperwork to do now, so I'll be on my way. You two know the way out." And with that, she left. Iron Man shrugged and looked at Captain America and Veslir. "That actually went much better than I thought it would."
"It is obvious that she happens to greatly respect you two." The armored general stated. "I believe that's the only reason she did not put up more of a fight about detaining me here."
Iron Man pressed a button on his gauntlet, releasing the lock on Veslir's restraints. "If she didn't listen to us and you actually were kept here...would you have actually stayed?"
He looked at the armored avenger, slipping off the metal cuffs while deciding if he should actually answer or not. There was no harm in answering truthfully, right? "No, I would not have. I would have done my best to break out of here and resume my mission. It is simply too important to not take part in personally."
Cap could understand that. If he had been held away from participating in World War II, the Kree-Skrull War, or the superhero Civil War a few years ago, he would have fought his way out so he could join the good fight. Just being kept back from defusing a dangerous situation over a misunderstanding...it would have angered him beyond all belief. Iron Man was a bit more vocal with his thoughts, though.
"Then you would probably have had another fight with the Avengers."
"In which I would not have held back in. You would all have significantly more trouble with me than last time."
"Alright, alright, enough of that." Captain America said as he clapped his hands. "We need to get back to Avengers Tower and think of a plan for this. Tony, call Red Hulk, Logan, Strange, and Carol to the tower."
Iron Man already had a hand to his helmet, calling the other Avengers. "Way ahead of you, Steve. Should we get Luke Cage and Iron Fist in on this too?"
Cap waved off the suggestion. "They're not available right now. Out of the country with Jessica taking care of their own business."
Veslir had to admit he was somewhat confused by all the unfamiliar names. Logan? Strange? Luke Cage and Iron Fist? Obviously they were other members of the Avengers but they had such odd names.
The group walked through the silver hallways of the helicarrier, heading up towards its surface. Once outside it became apparent that it was approaching night. The sky had turned considerably darker and the sun was passing towards the horizon. The surface of the helicarrier looked similar to an aircraft carrier. There were soldiers in uniforms similar to Maria Hill's running about and there were several planes of varying models docked. The trio approached a particularly large one. It was a gunmetal grey and had a stylized "A" on the side. It looked like the Avengers had an official plane of some kind. The hatch on the belly of the plane opened as they approached it and Iron Man held an arm out, ready to introduce the armored general to it.
"Veslir, this is the Quinjet. The only type of plane that's suitable for flying Avengers and their guests."
He could tell from his tone alone that Iron Man was quite proud of it. Did he build this himself as well?
They entered the plane and Veslir quickly understood why the armored avenger was so proud of it. There were seven leather seats lined up against each side of the interior with four seats ahead of those facing the cockpit. The flooring of the interior was dark blue marble (Veslir found it difficult to see the purpose of marble flooring for a plane) and there was even a lounge-like area in the back, complete with two sofas, two thick chairs made of gray fabric, and a table embedded to the floor. For a plane used by a team of superhumans it sure was luxurious. Iron Man took the pilot's seat while Captain America took the seat next to it. Veslir decided to take one of the seats against the walls. His head was still turning as he continued to study the Quinjet.
"She's a beauty isn't she?" The armored avenger said as he started up the plane's engines.
"It is certainly more...luxurious than I initially thought."
"Well don't get too comfortable, Veslir. We should be back at the tower in ten or fifteen minutes."
The armored general said nothing and simply leaned back in his seat, arms folded across his chest.
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Avengers Tower lived up to its name. It was an extremely large tower covered in bright silver metal. The top floor had a circular balcony that ran around the whole floor while the top of the building itself was large enough to hold two Quinjets on top. On the front side of the building, underneath the top floor's balcony, was a large stylized A, apparently a symbol of the Avengers. The three men left the plane and soon entered the building, walking down the stairs towards the top floor's lobby.
The lobby was comparable to a five-star hotel's. It had attractive white marble flooring with stylish gold marks and the walls had beautiful streams of water flowing down them. There were several chairs and couches spread around different areas of entertainment. There were some in front of a large screen television, some around a poker table, and more. The windows were almost as large as the walls, allowing an excellent view of the city, and the lights were hanging from the ceiling with stylish shades wrapped around them. The Quinjet and now the tower...it was beginning to dawn on Veslir that Iron Man was probably ridiculously wealthy. Even if he was intelligent enough to build this all himself, it would not have been possible without money as well.
There were already two more people waiting for them in the lobby. They were sitting in chairs casually talking to one another but immediately stood up when they saw the two other avengers and their giant guest. One of them was a beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes and...wait a second.
"You are that woman from before." Veslir stated. "The one referred to as..."
"Captain Marvel." She finished for him, folding her arms. Veslir inwardly cringed at this. Forgetting her name was not exactly a good start to establishing a working relationship.
"Her real name is Carol Danvers." Iron Man interrupted. "You two already met. It was when you two were punching each other in the face, but hey, it works." He then held out a hand to his side, indicating the other man. He was tall and wore a brown trench coat with a black shirt and black pants, along with a red scarf wrapped around his neck. He had a thin mustache and, neatly combed, short black hair with white sides. "Anyways, this is Stephen Strange. Otherwise known as Doctor Strange." The Sorcerer Supreme nodded at Veslir with a friendly smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you..." He paused, waiting for the armored general to return the introduction.
"Veslir Orwep." He actually had to stop himself from saying 'General of the Camgi Order'. Saying that right after his name had become a habit, but such details were completely irrelevant in this situation. It was not like he could actually get in contact with his army and request assistance after all. Captain America looked troubled, however, as he looked around the room as if looking for a missing person. He then looked at Carol.
"Where are other others?"
She sighed, obviously annoyed with the situation. "Red Hulk had his own business to attend to. Needed to head to Spain and left for his flight about an hour ago. Logan's not answering my calls so I'm assuming he's busy with his own stuff too. So, for now, you're stuck with just me and Stephen."
"What is that is so important, Steve?" Doctor Strange asked as he looked at each member of their group. He was curious as to who exactly Veslir was but decided to save that question for later.
Captain America looked at Veslir. "Want me to explain or should you?"
The armored general contemplated this. He already had much to think about. This new world was actually rather overwhelming. It was his first time being in a universe completely different than his own and all the people he was meeting were another source of thought. This whole world looked so different...yet so similar. It looked nothing like his ruined world, but looked similar to how his world looked before it was decimated. He knew this, yet it felt as if his mind was having trouble actually grasping this. What if this world was not completely different from his own? What if it was, in fact, the past of his world? If it were the future, the technology would be far superior and they would have surely known about Cloako and his release of the forces of Hell. Yet Captain America and Iron Man were completely surprised by the whole story.
"You...you can go ahead and explain it, Captain." Veslir muttered. "I need to take some time. My apologies, but this whole day has been rather exhausting."
"Understood. Carol, can you show Veslir his room?"
The blonde woman froze for a moment, as if offended that she was chosen to escort the armored giant. Her expression returned to normal and she simply nodded, walking past the group and beckoning Veslir to follow with a flick of her wrist. The two of them walked into the elevator and Carol pressed the 9 and 2 buttons, telling the elevator to bring them down to the 92nd floor of the tower. The tower certainly was large but the armored general had not really expected it to have ninety-three floors.
Calm jazzy elevator music filled the elevator as Carol and Veslir stood silently. A beep signaled they had reached their destination and they walked out into a lobby similar to the one above. This one was slightly smaller, however, and had black marble flooring instead. It also had the addition of two long hallways, one on the left and right sides, that were filled with doors. Carol lead Veslir to the fourth door down in the right hall but stopped just before opening it.
"I appreciate you showing me to my quarters, but I believe I can manage from here. I certainly know how to open a door." This was a rare attempt by Veslir at a joke and the woman's response made it obvious it had fallen flat. She abruptly turned to him and glared at him suspiciously. He was getting a very dangerous vibe from her and returned her look with a serious one of his own.
"Is there going to be a problem between us?" He asked.
Carol stood silent for a moment before quietly saying: "You're not human. Are you?"
Veslir's azure eyes widened. It was an extremely sudden and, to him, random question. On top of that, he found it surprising that this woman could so easily detect such a thing, yet none of the others had. How did she figure him out, though? Their world had extraordinary people such as Iron Man and the Red Hulk, so an eight foot man covered in armor should not have been so suspicious. From her expression, he assumed Carol had some sort of problem with non-humans. But there was no point in trying to stuff the cat back in the bag when it was already out and about.
Veslir sighed. "Yes, you are correct. I am not human."
Carol's eyes narrowed.
"I am actually an energy demon."
She took a step back from him. Not out of fear, but out of distrust. She held up a hand and her expression turned to one of anger, as if she were about to strike. He suspected such a reaction but it did not make it any less painful. Veslir understood why people were so distrusting of demons. They had the reputation of being evil and causing misery simply because they could. On top of that, his own world had been ravaged by demons and, truth be told, there were times where the armored general felt ashamed to even be alive as a result of that. But he was different. He was better than all the savages. He had acknowledged that long ago, back when he had been accepted into the city of Racamgi and rose up the ranks, eventually entering his current position as the respected general of its army.
"There are humans of all kinds, are there not? There are those such as you, Captain America, and Iron Man. Humans who protect the innocent and fight the good fight. Then there are those who want nothing but death and destruction for others. I do not know how the demons of this world are, but in my world they are similar to humans in that they have free will. I shall admit that most choose to be an enemy of humanity, but I have chosen otherwise. I met humans who accepted me because of my actions, not because of my species. I have also met others who would not accept me simply because I was not like them."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I simply ask..." Veslir continued. "That you judge me upon my actions from here on. What happened earlier today...was simply an act of desperation. I am not making light of the situation, I am simply telling you I had my reasons for fighting you all. Sometimes we must do things that disgust us in order to help preserve the bigger picture."
Silence.
Then a small laugh.
"Ha." Carol said as her expression softened. "You sound like my commanding officer back in the air force."
"You have a military background?"
"Yep. I was a Major before I gained my powers and left."
If Veslir had a mouth, he would have been smiling. Despite this world being so different, there were still similarities in its people. He could see such similarities in the woman in front of him, who reminded him of his Major back in his own world. But there was something he needed to know.
"How did you know I was not human?"
Carol held up a hand and it glowed with yellow energy. "I can absorb and redirect energy. When I'm close to you I can feel a crapload of energy within your armor. Too much for there to be enough space for a person in that suit. But energy can't just stay suspended in nothingness. It would spread like water does outside its bottle. That's why you wear that armor, isn't it?"
"...Yes. Yes it is. Without this armor my body would just continue to dissipate until there was nothing left of me."
"Well." Carol started as she walked by him, patting him on the shoulder. "If you're really as good as you act, then you can count on me to make sure that never happens." She walked into the elevator and the doors closed behind her, leaving Veslir alone in the hall. He stood there for a few minutes, absorbing what had just happened. He then let out a hearty laugh and opened the door to his room.
"I believe I may end up liking it here."
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"So that's what's going on." Captain America concluded, having just finished telling Carol Danvers and Stephen Strange all the information about Veslir's world and the Talisma.
"By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth..." Strange mumbled with a worried expression. "These Talisma sound so similar to the Infinity Gems. Is it possible they are Veslir's world's counterpart of them?"
"Ugh." Carol groaned as she massaged her temples. "Please, nothing like those gems. We barely got out of that situation. Hell, we basically all died."
She actually was not exaggerating. Thanos, a powerful alien overlord and worshiper of the avatar of death, had gotten his hands on six items called the Infinity Gems. With all six of them he had killed half the life in the universe with a single thought and killed all of Earth's heroes when they confronted him. It was only due to Thanos's own mistake that he was eventually defeated and all the damage was reversed. It was the closest that the heroes had ever been to truly losing.
"You know, I'm not exactly a huge fan of being grim and serious, but..." Iron Man took off his helmet and looked at each of his friends. "We need to treat this situation like we would if these were the Infinity Gems. We can't take this lightly. Imagine if someone like the Red Skull or Doctor Doom got their hands on them. Hell, imagine if someone like Norman Osborn did!"
Carol's expression turned serious as well. "No matter which of our enemies get them, we're screwed."
"Then we need to make sure we get the relics first." Cap said strongly.
"We already have a start then..." Strange got up from his seat and walked towards the window. "Are any of you aware that there was almost a mass breakout at the Raft today?"
Tony's eyes widened and he looked at the sorcerer in disbelief. "Oh come on! That happened only a few years ago already! Not again!"
"I said almost." Strange replied flatly. "Anyways, apparently one of the inmates got their hands on a rather powerful stone and used it to increase their power exponentially. They broke right out of their cell and almost escaped the island. Thankfully, Peter arrived him with the aid of an unknown man named Silv. The Fantastic Four arrived shortly after the battle's end and took them to the Baxter Building for recovery. I was told that both of them were rather injured from the fight."
"Will Peter be all right?" Tony's voice was filled with obvious concern. Despite their past disagreements, Peter Parker felt like a type of son to him.
"Yes, he should be fine. Only a few minor fractures."
Captain America went straight back to business. "This stone...was it one of the Talisma?"
Doctor Strange nodded. "Yes. Peter told Reed everything Silv told him, which was less than Veslir told you, but enough for me to make the connections. At this time, Reed is going to study the Talisma in his possession and see if he can find some way to track the others."
The star-spangled avenger nodded in approval. "Good. Once we have a way to track them, getting them should be quick and easy. On top of that, this Silv fellow seems to be from the same world as Veslir. We should let him know this when he gets up tomorrow. Is there anything else, Stephen?"
Strange shook his head. "That's all I know."
Carol moved a hand through her hair. "Well what do we do now? We have no idea where the other Talisma are and no way to track them yet. Do we just wait on Reed to finish?"
"No, we can alert others of the situation for now." Tony said as he got up from his chair. "I'll contact T'Challa tomorrow and see if there's been anything weird going on in Wakanda. Someone should try to get in contact with Logan again and find out if he's seen anything weird too. Anyone else we should alert?"
Captain America got up from his seat as well. "I'll contact Maria Hill tomorrow and let her know that Reed's cooking up something for this. All right, everyone's dismissed. Rest up, things are probably gonna get hectic."
Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. Iron Man and Captain America retired to their rooms, Doctor Strange disappeared in a flash of purple light, and Carol simply stood there for a moment. Her mind was still going through everything that she just learned. She felt sorry for Veslir. She could not imagine how it felt to live in such a desecrated world where everything outside the city walls wanted to kill you. Yet, he showed no sign of being broken by such things. Was he simply good at hiding it or did he truly have that strong of a will?
Carol decided to leave the thought alone for now and turn in for the night.